Steelers 2013 Training Camp – Day Nine Recap

It\’s hard to believe that nine days of training camp have already passed for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their first preseason game takes place next Saturday and their next day off won\’t be until Tuesday. Here is a recap of the few tidbits floating around the interwebs from day nine.

Perhaps the biggest news on Saturday was the amount of players that did not practice. Head coach Mike Tomlindidn\’t go through the laundry list after practice as he wrote many of them off as being training camp bumps and bruises and only said that several are working their way back in 24 to 48 hours. Those players that we do know didn\’t practice include Cortez Allen (knee), Terry Hawthorne (knee), DeMarcus Van Dyke (hamstring), Matt Spaeth (knee), Jason Worilds (toe), Le\’Veon Bell (knee), Adrian Robinson (unknown), Jarvis Jones (unknown), Lawrence Timmons (personal), Brett Keisel (coaches decision), Steve McLendon (unknown), Heath Miller (PUP knee), David Johnson (PUP knee), Sean Spence (PUP knee) and Alameda Ta\’amu (PUP hamstring). We don\’t know for sure what the status of Nick Williams (knee) was today.

Tomlin said after practice that it wasn\’t a good one, but a great one and added that they worked on short-yardage and goal-line on Saturday. He said the offense won the short-yardage phase while the defense came on top in the goal-line portion.

John Kryk of the Toronto Sun was at practice Saturday and reported that Roethlisberger sat out the 11-on-11 portion of practice after looking sharp in individual drills. Kryk also reports that on one of the short-yardage reps, inside linebacker Stevenson Sylvester had a crushing hit on Jonathan Dwyer. Sure, that\’s only one play, but I think it\’s been a while since I last typed Sylvester\’s name.

Kryk also reported that tempers flared a few times and it included Hebron Fangupo throwing a few punches during one of the disagreements. Come to find out he was throwing them at Ramon Foster, according to Bob Labriola of Steelers Digest, who added that Dick LeBeau snatched the young nose tackle to the side and gave him a stern talking to after it happened.

LeBeau was not the only coach doing correcting as apparently Todd Haley had his differences with Antonio Brownduring the goal-line portion of practice. That led to Tomlin talking to Brown, according to Alan Robinson of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Both Labriola and Jim Wexell of Steel City Insider reported quarterback John Parker Wilsonas having a good day. He apparently has shown some good accuracy as of late. It will be interesting to see the rotation used in the first preseason game as it appears Landry Jones still might be fourth on the depth chart right now. Jones apparently needs to improve his arm strength first and foremost.

There was a report early in the day by Wexell stating Mike Adamsremained on the left side in walk-thru portion of practice. We are not sure if it remained that way all day or not, but Dale Lolley of the Washington Observer reported Saturday afternoon that he thinks Marcus Gilbertbelongs on the bench as he doesn\’t consider him one of the best five linemen on the team right now. Lolley goes on to say that Gilbert is not consistent and that he thinks Kelvin Beachum should be on the right side with Adams manning the left side. That\’s a pretty strong opinion and it makes you wonder if Adams will end up as the starting left tackle by the start of the season. We still have another week to go until the first preseason game, so a lot still could happen between now and the season opener.

Speaking of offensive linemen, Justin Cheadle reportedly received some work at center on Saturday, according to Labriola. This, however, is not the first time we have heard this, so they are likely still testing his position flexibility. Now that Nik Embernate is out for the season with a knee injury, you have to think Cheadle and Mike Golic Jr. are battling for a guard spot on the practice squad. Cheadle of course ended the 2012 season on the eight man unit, so he might very well have the upper hand right now.

There were some conflicting reports today about the punters, so I\’ll just pass along David Todd of 970 ESPN Radiosaying that both looked good Saturday until Brian Moorman shanked one. There\’s your punter update for the weekend.

Being as we are talking about punters, rookie Reggie Dunn reportedly got a stern chewing from Tomlin after he chose not to field a punt that would have resulted in it being downed deep.

Bruce Gradkowski went deep a few times to Emmanuel Sanders, according to Todd, and they connected once on a deep out. Sanders had Ike Taylor beat on another but he didn\’t make the catch.

The Steelers waived Embernate injured on Saturday and he should revert back to the injured reserve list after clearing waivers. To fill his spot on the roster, the team signed free agent tackle D’Anthony Batiste to a one-year deal for the minimum. Batiste will be hard pressed to make the 53 man roster. The Steelers simply needed another tackle body now that Golic has been moved inside to replace the injured Embernate.

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I love how physical they are but I hope the team isn’t worn out in December like they said they were in 2007.

Dom

I’d take getting to the playoffs as well as we did in ’07 personally

Stephen Dale

this team will be hard pressed to better last year’s 8-8 record. anything resulting in double-digit victorys will have to be considered a plus season.

Ahmad

I know a lot of players are missing time due to bumps and bruises but let’s look at the bright side. The Steelers have managed to avoid any major injuries outside of Embernate plus the OL has stayed healthy. Considering the rash of horrendous injuries happening to other teams I’ll take our injury report any day of the week.

RW

Do you even have a reason for saying that or are you just saying it to say it? I think with all the positive reporting from camp this year (as opposed to last year, when several players were out of shape and the newcomers looked lost), you ought to think that, barring a significant injury to a significant player or two, there is a brighter future ahead.

SteelersDepot

and your reasoning?

Lani Wilson Kauvaka

No one likes a pessimist…

dgh57

I see Mr. Pessimist is spouting off yet again with nothing to base his reasoning on!!!

John Hinton

I couldn’t agree more. Hopefully Hawthorne, Van Dyke and Ta’amu will soon join the competition for their respective positions.

Matt Searls

You’re not very fun at parties are you?

SteelerFanInMD

I’m surprised that Landry Jones needs to improve his arm strength. It was also reported during the OTAs that he didn’t throw well. Is he recovering from an injury? If he really has a weak arm, the Steelers should have known about that before trading up to draft him. Lolley’s report on Marcus Gilbert is a concern. The Oline will have 3 members with less than a full season of experience as a starter. If any of them fail to play up to standards, it could spell trouble.

steeltown

Ha!

steeltown

Cant wait for C.Allen and Hawthorne to get back at it

steeltown

They traded up for Shamarko Thomas.. Landry was selected with their original 4th Rd (115th) pick shortly there after. I still think the Landry Jones selection was a good one. His college stats alone warrant a mid Rd pick

steeltown

I would hope that both Cheadle AND Golic Jr make the PS especially considering it looks more and more likely we only keep 8OL on 53man.. of course there is also Joe Long, so maybe Golic and Cheadle will be battling for ONE spot on the PS

Steve

Gilbert is not having the best camp and if he don’t watch Beach will be taking his place. Beach is “Hungry” and smart and will be starting soon.

Steeler Wheeler

Given Ben’s injury history, the second to last thing I want at QB is a rookie being #3, #2 when Ben is out. The lest thing I want is a no-talent rookie. To the PS, Mr. Jones!

Ha, got all my info from reading articles on this site, pretty good qualifications to decide roster spots!

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